Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez is finally being appreciated as the deadly goalscorer he is
Javier Hernandez has bolstered the status of Mexican attacking players abroad and remained prolific for his national team mostly by nicking right-place-right-time goals from the penalty spot on in. But anyone who's watched closely enough knows that those tap-ins have zero things to do with chance.
No, it's his incessant and immaculate movement off of the ball, which I came to appreciate at the very end of his second season at Old Trafford when he deposed reigning champions Chelsea 36 seconds into a match in late May.
It's not visible in the television broadcast, but the Mexican starts to buzzing as soon as John O'Shea wins the header off of Petr Cech's lofted service. He stays in David Luiz's back draft (who, of course, was playing slightly out of position as David Luiz is wont to do), just on side, hiding in John Terry's blindspot. The truly genius thing is how he feints toward the touchline and darts straight up the middle so that Luiz is left flailing in a last-ditch effort to cut off Ji-Sung Park's through ball.
Honestly, Hernandez's nickname should've been the "Little Bee" instead of the "Little Pea" -- which is what "Chicharito" means -- but "Pequena Abeja" is unwieldy. On top of that it's two words, doesn't look as good on a jersey, and might not even be correct Spanish.
If we're keeping it a stack, Manchester United never really deserved Chicharito. But a loan to Real Madrid in September 2014 made even less sense; he was trading in a crowded stable of attacking options for a completely overcrowded stable of attacking options, doomed to languish on the sidelines in a training pinnie.
And so he did.
From the time Chicharito joined Los Blancos the summer of 2014 until the start of April 2015 he notched three goals. Two of which came in the same 8-2 drubbing of Deportivo that September. An unfortunate injury to Karim Benzema in Madrid's first Champions League quarter final leg against Atletico Madrid gave Chicha the opportunity to prove himself, and prove himself he did. He added a goal and an assist to his league tally, and then scored the lone goal in the second leg against Atleti, putting Madrid through to the UCL semifinal. All said and done he bagged eight in 1,179 minutes of action, or about 13 regulation-length matches.
It was evident then that Chicharito was a true talent, and that the only thing he really needed was to be somewhere he'd be, well, needed. So when Bayer Leverkusen came knocking after his loan spell was up, the move only made sense. And it panned out too: since joining the North Rhine-Westphalian club, Chicharito's bagged 17 goals in 26 league matches this past season and added two assists, making him the top Mexican striker in all of Bundesliga history.
Suffice it to say, he's in form heading into this summer's Copa America Centenario.
And what's more, he's sitting on 43 international goals for Mexico, just three shy of Jared Borgetti's all-time record of 46. So should he be able to grab four goals during El Tri's campaign -- which again, is almost certain considering his recent run of form -- Hernandez will have achieved immortality at the ripe old age of 27.
And his prime is just beginning.
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